The European Commission approvedOn Friday, €500 million in funding under the Ammunition Support Act (ASAP) for 31 projects to develop ammunition production capacity, including the construction of an ammunition plant in Romania, according to Free Europe. Economy Minister Radu Oprea says the factory in Romania, built jointly with Rheinmetall, will produce “the best powder in the world at the moment”.

This will allow the European defense industry to increase the production capacity of ammunition to 2 million shells per year by the end of 2025.

The Romanian project was submitted by the German company Rheinmetall and ROMARM to the Ministry of Economy.

The commission reports that the 31st financial contract can be signed in May.

Economy Minister Radu Oprea, under whose authority the ROMARM company (which unites 16 state factories for the production of ammunition and weapons) is located, said in an interview published on Thursday by one2one, that representatives of the Rheinmetall company have already arrived in Romania. .

“We had on-site inspections, we have a concept, because that’s how the project was presented, we know what we have to do. But we will again, in April, conduct field visits at the technical level to be able to better define the project and start all the necessary steps from there,” explained the Minister of Economy.

Radu said on Friday that a team of technical specialists from Germany will arrive in early August to determine all the steps we still need to take.

“The powder that we will produce in Romania will probably be the best powder in the world at the moment,” he emphasized to Digi24.